My Mind and My Emotions: The Tag-team of Doom

I said in a recent post that God saddles us with two powerful forces: the heart and the mind. In that post I asked the question, “Why would God give us such damning forces to wield?” I answered that these powerful forces make us utterly dependent and desperate for relationship with Him, which is their intent. This is the way we’re to live this life: completely surrendering our thoughts and emotions to Him for His definition, clarification, and direction. Obviously this is easier said than done, because we usually like to do things ourselves. “No thank you God, I got it! I have my mind and my emotions after all.”

When My Mind and My Emotions Rule

When either my mind or my emotions have preeminence over my life, I have a recipe for destruction. Enthroning my thoughts or feelings creates chaos, confusion and ultimately death. And if ever my feelings lead my thoughts and reason, it’s like a WWE tag team match against my spirit. The ultimate result of living by “what I feel” is devastation and shame.

My Mind nd My Emotions: Train to Hell

Sometimes it looks like our logical mind works independently of our emotional feelings. I know many people who appear to be totally led by their emotions without a logical bone in their bodies. I also know people who seem to live unsullied by their emotions and function strictly by their logic and reason. But when someone’s feelings teams up with their reason against the leading of the Spirit, this always results in doom. When I go outside of the realm of God’s definition of my reality, I will enter the shame of defining what I think by how I feel. This is like the old Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disney­—a crazy train to hell.

Shame is the product of not going to God for His definition of our circumstances.

Why shame? Because instinctually we know we are unable to live in any kind of reality without God. Most try, but it’s effectively impossible. Our design is dependence regardless of how many prosthetics we attach to give evidence to the contrary.

The emotions and the mind are vastly powerful, like strapping an active fire hose to a toddler. They’re in for the ride of their life! The power is too intense to be managed. It can only be surrendered, not manhandled.

It is My Mind and My Emotions

Please understand, I am not writing all this with my finger pointed; I am reminding myself. “Hey John, you were built for dependence! Your thoughts are not your own. Your feelings are not yours to manage.”

Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. Romans 8:6 AMPC

The Holy Spirit is the only One able to manage these powerful forces. And He is completely trustworthy to lead my steps. The only danger I face is to fail to take these forces into my relationship with my Father. To withhold my mind and my emotions from Him is to prevent my Shepherd from being my shepherd.

Comments:

Posted by SandyMarch 31, 2016 at 1:30 pm

Oh the things you invite us to ponder, John… I never take them lightly!

On our own we are completely lost. Yet we don’t see it. We also cannot fully grasp all that He is and all that He has done. Yet, only faith is required! And that is all He wants!! How can it be enough…

To think that we’ll be eternally praising Him makes me really realize that I don’t get it…

Jeanne Guyon used to say “proprietary souls” are headed for disaster. She said that ownership is but a phantom, a lie and unreality that makes us human miserable beings.

I do agree my possesions (mind, emotions, memories) are headed for sure ruin when I try to hold them in my hands to drink and feed from them. Releasing control to Jesus means finding everything back on a firm rock: Jesus.